Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American filmmaker. An acclaimed director who tackled subjects ranging from the Vietnam War and American politics to musical biopics and crime dramas, Stone has received numerous accolades including three Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, one Primetime Emmy, three Independent Spirit Awards and six Golden Globes.
Stone was born in New York City and later briefly attended Yale University. In 1967, Stone enlisted in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. He served from 1967 to 1968 in the 25th Infantry and 1st Cavalry Divisions and was twice wounded in action. For his service, he received military honors including a Bronze Star with "V" Device for valor, Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster, an Air Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge. His service in Vietnam became the foundation for the stark portrayals of war and its aftermath in his work.
Stone began his career as a screenwriter for films such as Midnight Express, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Conan the Barbarian and Scarface. He then rose to prominence as writer and director of the Vietnam War film dramas Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July, receiving Academy Awards for Best Director for both films, the former of which also won Best Picture. He also directed Salvador, Wall Street and its sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, The Doors, JFK, Heaven & Earth, Natural Born Killers, Nixon, Any Given Sunday, W. and Snowden. Collectively, his films have grossed $1.3 billion worldwide.
Many of Stone's films focus on controversial American political issues during the late 20th century, and as such were considered contentious at the times of their releases. Stone has been critical of the American foreign policy, which he considers to be driven by nationalist and imperialist agendas. Like his subject matter, Stone is a controversial figure in American filmmaking, with some critics accusing him of promoting conspiracy theories.
Early life, education, and military service
WIlliam Oliver Stone was born on September 15, 1946, at Doctors Hospital in New York City, the only child of Jacqueline and Louis Stone. His parents met in his mother's hometown of Paris during World War II where his father, a U.S. Army colonel, served as a financial officer on General Eisenhower's staff. Upon his return to Manhattan after the war, Louis worked on Wall Street as a stockbroker and investment analyst, eventually becoming vice president of Shearson Lehman Brothers. Stone's paternal great-grandparents were Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Poland, and his grandfather, Joshua Silverstein, ran successful skirt-making businesses in New York City and New Jersey. The family changed its surname from Silverstein to Stone in the 1920s due to rampant antisemitism in the United States. His aunt was author and editor Babette Rosmond and his cousins are writer Gene Stone and former chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission James Stone. Stone himself grew up in Manhattan and Stamford, Connecticut. While his American father was Jewish, his French mother was Roman Catholic, though both were non-practicing. Stone was raised in the Episcopal Church and now practices Buddhism.Stone attended kindergarten through eighth grade at Trinity School in New York City before being sent to The Hill School, a college-preparatory boarding school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He spoke French as his first language, which led to some difficulties as an ESL learner during his early years at Trinity. His father paid him a quarter every week to write one to two pages on a theme; this inspired Stone's early love of writing. Starting at age nine, his primary caretaker was a male nanny, Karlo Stojanac; a Yugoslavian Holocaust survivor, Stojanac was both openly gay and a Socialist, uncommon traits in that time period. Stone later described his nanny as having a fluctuating gender identity, as well as suffering post-traumatic stress from his experiences in a concentration camp. Reflecting on their bond, Stone called their relationship "extraordinarily close" and said that Stojanac "was my mentor in many ways. He took care of me and he loved me." In 1962, while Stone was attending The Hill, his parents abruptly divorced, which shocked him. Following a court ruling that deemed his mother unfit, his father was granted sole custody. With his mother already frequently absent prior to the divorce, Stone was raised under the strong influence of his father, which may explain why father-son relationships are a recurring theme in his work.
Stone often spent summers with his maternal grandparents in France, both in Paris and La Ferté-sous-Jouarre in Seine-et-Marne, where he was fascinated by his grandfather's stories of serving in the French Army during World War I. At 17, he worked as a runner in the Paris Commodities Exchange, a job that later proved inspirational for his film Wall Street. Because of the estrangement from his mother, his French grandmother was his primary maternal figure and her death in 1976 deeply affected him: "She loved me, and she’d always loved me and believed in me. That was a big thing. Something happened at 30 with her death. And I became more mature, and my success started to flow from there.”
After graduating from The Hill School in 1964, Stone was admitted to Yale University, but left in June 1965 at age 18 to teach high school students English for six months at the Free Pacific Institute in Saigon, South Vietnam. Afterwards, he worked for a short while as a wiper on a United States Merchant Marine ship in 1966, traveling from Asia to the US across the rough Pacific Ocean in January. He returned to Yale, but dropped out again after one semester. During this period, Stone also battled severe depression and suicidal ideation. He would continue to have episodes of major depression throughout his life: “I was lost for a long time, and I stayed lost."
U.S. Army
In April 1967, Stone enlisted in the United States Army and requested combat duty in Vietnam. Upon arrival, he first served as a infantryman with 2nd Platoon, B Company, 3rd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. In October 1967, he was medevaced for the first time after being shot in the neck during a night ambush, a wound which nearly severed his jugular vein and carotid artery. "It was a miracle I survived the neck injury," he reflected in 2025. Later, while fighting with that same unit in the New Year's Battle of 1968, Stone was knocked unconscious and had his eardrum perforated by the concussive blast of a beehive round, which resulted in permanent deafness in that ear. On January 15, 1968, Stone was wounded and evacuated from the 25th Infantry Division for the final time when, while attempting to aid other injured personnel, a satchel charge implanted in a tree detonated, causing a blast concussion and shrapnel wounds to his legs and buttocks.In the 1990s, biographer James Riordan discovered correspondence from the Treasury Department of the American Consulate in Hong Kong dated 1968, revealing that Louis Stone had used his government connections to request a noncombat transfer for his son following his injuries. However, the consulate's letter stated that, when offered a support position with the CIA, Oliver emphatically declined, adding that he was staying in the Army and looking forward to completing his tour of duty in combat.
Following a month-long hospital stay, Stone briefly served transitional duty as a military policeman in Saigon. He was then transferred to the 1st Cavalry Division, participating in long-range reconnaissance patrols, before being transferred to Troop D, 1st Squadron of the 9th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cav for the rest of his tour. While serving with that unit on August 21, 1968, Stone charged and killed a North Vietnamese sniper who had several squads pinned down during a crossfire firefight near My Khe beach. For that action, he was awarded the Bronze Star with "V" Device for "heroism in ground combat."
Following a voluntary three-month extension of his tour, Stone was separated from active duty on November 15, 1968, and officially discharged from the Army on April 1, 1973. In addition to the Bronze Star, his military awards include the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster to denote two awards, the Air Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, Sharpshooter Badge with Rifle Bar, Marksman Badge with Auto Rifle Bar, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal with one Silver Service Star, the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Unit Citation with Palm, two Overseas Service Bars, the Vietnam Campaign Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
After the war
On June 30, 1969, the French news program Voila interviewed a then-unknown Stone while filming "on the street" interviews about the war in Central Park. In fluent French, he told them, "My name is Oliver Stone, I’m 22 years old, I’m from New York, and my mother is French from Paris. I served in Vietnam with the American Army for 15 months and I returned to the United States six months ago. It changed me. It changes a lot of boys." He added that drug use was rampant among American soldiers.Following the war, Stone suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. His PTSD was compounded by a violent mugging he experienced in the East Village in the summer of 1969, during which he sustained defensive knife wounds. Stone has also described long-term physical complications from his military service, specifically combat induced hearing loss and tinnitus, minor discomfort from shrapnel still embedded in his body, and fertility issues he believes were caused by Agent Orange exposure. He commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War's conclusion by sharing his reflections during panel discussions at the Harvard Institute of Politics and San Diego State University's Center for War and Society and in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Stone denied experiencing any hostility upon returning from Vietnam. Instead, he characterized the general attitude to veterans as indifferent, which contributed to his feelings of depression and isolation. In a 2020 BBC interview, he reflected that, despite his later success, he felt his experience as a combat veteran alienated him from both his generation and Hollywood.